"Rear Echelon. A solo campaign for Vietnam" Topic

Something a little different. A solo campaign for Vietnam, written with Hell by Daylight rules in mind but it'll play with any rules.
The player is the Viet Cong, trying to run a nice efficient rear echelon and bothered by American guerrillas

link

Thanks, looks interesting.

I hope so :-)
At least it should be different

Awesome! Top notch effort. If you squint your eyes you could even turn this into a boardgame.

I would also like to see a game where you are the VC but engaging in guerrilla warfare (unlike in this solo game), possibly solo, and where the VC isn't meant as an afterthought/opfor but as the primary player. So basically like your game, but about guerrilla warfare by the VC.

Amdresf, I was thinking much the same thing. Somewhere in my magazine archive is just such a solo campaign, and I was thinking of how to tie the two together maybe.

The VC guerilla campaign had about a platoon to deploy. Men could be assigned to food gathering, ammo scavenging for making booby traps, and making booby traps. Senior officers would pass through from time to time with random orders. The Free World forces would show up randomly as either something to be ambushed or as a threat.

Woolly, if you can find that solo campaign, it would be awesome! Just what I'm looking for.

I don't know whether the one you're thinking about is the one I did, but I certainly did one like that a lot of years ago. Somebody sent me it again and having re-read it I do intend to rework it

From memory I wrote it back in the 1990s and I can do it better now :-)
Also it's a magazine article and I don't like just running the same article twice :-)

Having given it a more thorough read, I'll be gaming this over the holidays. Thanks for posting!
hmm. I wonder if I could mash this up with FNG Operations and make it a 2 player game, or a not so random solo game.

It would be a doddle to make it two player. The easiest option would be to keep 'the randomness' and the campaign background, and just let the American player fight the battles.
This would be simplest, you give him his unit and let him go.

Jim, it may well have been one of yours; I've been a fan of your – what shall we say – slightly alternative perspective for years. I think it was literally called 'VC solo', and it would have been 90s. I'll try and find some time to dig it out over the weekend.

For 2 player, I'm thinking more of both players use the same campaign map and write their orders for the turn.
American: squad 1 to ambush this sector, squad 2 to village for civic project, etc
VC: team 1 to village for tax collection, team 2 to that sector setup booby traps
They don't tell the other player what they are doing, just where (maybe with some dummy markers).
If both sides have markers on the same sector, they both sent troops to the same place, contact and fight.
Otherwise, increase/decrease enemy activity level/PC level.

Yes, Viet Cong solo, that's the one. :-)

Stryderg
That would work.

@Jim Webster. Found it – Miniature Wargames no.38, July '86!

A great little campaign, though I seem remember I was distinct disappointment to the Party. On the other hand, I'm not sure how great success leading communist insurgents would have gone down with the RN at the time, so maybe no bad thing.

Definitely worth a revamp and reissue if you ever have the time.

Given I've had thirty-five years to pick up a whole new set of bad habits, it's worth giving it a try :-)

Whether the party will be any more forgiving we will have to wait and see :-)

@Wolly any chance you could scan/take photos of the campaign and link to it? (Assuming it's not too much work and Jim here doesn't object, of course). I'm really curious about this VC solo campaign.

I'd be happy to share, but it's Jim's article. Leaving aside my complete ignorance of magazine copyright, as he's here I think it's his call.

Given the age of the article, and the fact that neither of you are doing anything commercial, I don't see a problem with it

If he likes it, it can read the new version when it comes out and write snotty letters saying how I've ruined something perfect and precious :-)

Thanks Jim!

Writing those snotty letters is something I can do well :)

I look forward to them, it's always good to be in the presence of a master :-)

Thanks Jim.

Andresf, drop me a line at d dot w-gosson (at) live dot co dot uk.

@Woolly, thanks! Email sent.